familypediawikiaorg-20200214-history
Richard, 1st Duke of York (1473-c1483)
}} | place of birth = Shrewsbury, Shropshire | date of death = 1483? unknown and disputed }} Dukedoms Richard was created Duke of York in May 1474. From this time on, it became a tradition for the second son of the English sovereign to be Duke of York. On 15 January 1478, in St. Stephen's Chapel, Westminster, when he was about 4 years old, he married the 5-year-old Anne de Mowbray, 8th Countess of Norfolk, who had inherited the vast Mowbray estates in 1476. Because York's father-in-law's dukedom had become extinct when Anne could not inherit it, he was created Duke of Norfolk and Earl Warennne on 7 February 1477. He was created Earl of Nottingham on 12 June 1476. When Anne de Mowbray died in November 1481 her estates should have passed to William, Viscount Berkeley and to John, Lord Howard. In January 1483 Parliament passed an act that gave the Mowbray estates to Richard, Duke of York and Norfolk, for his lifetime, and at his death to his heirs, if he had any. The rights of the two co-heirs at law were extinguished; Viscount Berkeley had financial difficulties and King Edward IV paid off those debts. Berkeley then renounced his claims to the Mowbray estate before parliament in 1483. Nothing was done for Lord Howard. Some have asserted that this step provided Howard with the motive to kill the Princes in the Tower. Heir presumptive and the Duke of York in the Tower of London by Paul Delaroche]] His father died on 9 April 1483. Thus his brother Edward, Prince of Wales, became King of England and was acclaimed as such, and Richard his Heir Presumptive. This was not to last. Robert Stillington, the Bishop of Bath and Wells, testified that Edward IV had agreed to marry Lady Eleanor Talbot in 1461. Lady Eleanor was still alive when Edward married Elizabeth Woodville in 1464. The Regency council under the late King's brother Richard Duke of Gloucester, concluded that this was a case of bigamy, invalidating the second marriage and the legitimacy of all children of Edward IV by this marriage. Under Gloucester's influence, both Edward and Richard were declared illegitimate and removed from the line of succession on 25 June 1483. The Duke of Gloucester, as the only surviving brother of Edward IV, became King Richard III. ]] Possible fate The Duke of York was sent to the Tower of London, then a royal residence, by King Richard III in mid-1483. What happened to him and his brother—the Princes in the Tower—after that has been the subject of much speculation and debate. Due to Tudor propaganda efforts, it was long believed that they were both murdered not long afterward on Richard III's orders; however, the lack of any conclusive proof of their fate has led to alternative scenarios being proposed, for instance that that both boys were murdered on the orders of one of Margaret Beaufort, Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, John Morton or Henry VII, or that Richard survived. In the 1490s, Perkin Warbeck, a Pretender for the English crown, claimed to be Richard, Duke of York, but he is generally considered to have been an impostor, and was labeled thus by the Tudor regime. There have been some, a minority, in every generation since then who have believed that Warbeck was Richard, Duke of York, while others have alleged that he was an illegitimate son of either Edward IV or Richard III. The skeletons of two children discovered in a chest in the Tower in 1674 were presumed to be the princes, but the evidence is not conclusive because the bones could not be dated and neither could their sex be established. These remains were subsequently interred in Westminster Abbey. However in 1789, when restoration work was being carried out at the tomb of Edward IV in Windsor Castle, the coffins of two mysterious, unidentified children were found in what appeared to be a secret vault adjoining the main vault of the king and queen. But these were never examined.1.Chapter Records XXIII to XXVI, The Chapter Library, St. George's Chapel, Windsor (Permission required) 2.William St. John Hope: "Windsor Castle: An Architectural History", pages 418-419. (1913). 3.Vetusta Monumenta, Volume III, page 4 (1789). Titles, styles, honours and arms Arms As son of the sovereign, Richard was granted use of the arms of the kingdom, differentiated by a label argent, on the first point a canton gules.Marks of Cadency in the British Royal Family In popular culture The comedy series The Black Adder features an alternative history where Richard succeeded his uncle King Richard III to the throne as King Richard IV of England (portrayed by Brian Blessed). Richard appears in Philippa Gregory's 2009 fictionalized novel The White Queen, which follows the theory that Richard's mother, Elizabeth Woodville, never gave young Richard over to the custody of his uncle, instead swapping him with a changeling and sending the true prince into hiding in Tournai, Belgium. He appears later in the novel under the assumed name, Perkin Warbeck. Richard is a character in the young adult series of novels, The Missing, by Margaret Peterson Haddix. He appears in the second book, Sent, as the character Alex Polchak. See also * Princes in the Tower * Perkin Warbeck References * page 218 * * page 248 External links * The Peerage.com * The Princes in the Tower * stirnet.com 201 Richard of Shrewsbury Richard of Shrewsbury Category:Heirs to the English throne Category:Earls Marshal 401 401 Category:Knights of the Garter Category:Dukes in the Peerage of England 201 301 Category:Knights of the Bath Category:People from Shrewsbury Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York Category:Prisoners in the Tower of London Category:Missing people Category:Year of death unknown Category:People of the Tudor period Category:15th-century English people Category:Famous people